http://www.mgenthusiast.com MGE AUGUST 2019^15
Results from H&H, Duxford
- 1939 TA short engine £
- 1953 TD £18,
- 1959 A Twin-Cam Roadster
(with 8-valve MGB engine) £18, - 1960 A 1600 Roadster No Sale
- 1962 A 1600 Coupé £27,
- 1968 C Roadster £20,
- 1969 C GT £13,
- 1970 B Roadster £12,
- 1972 Midget 1275 £
- 1972 Midget 1275 £
- 1994 R V8 No Sale
While MG must have been influenced
to some extent by Alfa (and possibly
Jaguar’s XK), the two engines had
virtually nothing in common apart from
the obvious. The MGA’s Twin-Cam
was essentially an iron-age B-series
with a different head, while the Italian
opposition was all-aluminium. The
respective production lives give a
hint to which was the better motor.
Apparently the Italian interloper
slotted straight in, complete with
5-speed box, and the engineer
owner added front discs and
uprated suspension as part of the
transformation. No doubt the end result
is a faster and better balanced MGA but
originality is prized above all nowadays,
so no takers, even at the guide price of
£12,000+. It’s interesting that a genuine
MGA Twin-Cam, fitted with a stock 1800
B-series, sold for £18,000 at H&H.
Heading north to ACA, at Kings Lynn,
by a quirk of fate an Alfa Spider (one of
many models using the aforementioned
rear-drive twin cam) was on offer, with
a £10,000-£12,000 estimate. It actually
made £24,380, begging the fanciful
question of what a Spider fitted with an
MGA Twin-Cam might have realised.
back to £1400 (all ACA prices inclusive of
commission): a bargain, on the face of it.
A perfectly respectable four-owner
BGT of the same year suffered the same
way, as it had been off the road ‘a few
years’. £2544 bagged it for about £
less than the lower estimate. A 1971 B
Roadster on wires, with a tuned 2-litre
engine, made £3922 as forecast.
As RV8 prices seem to have been
heading north for a while, £16,
for a Japanese re-import, with under
50k miles clocked, was reasonable. (A
similar model at H&H two weeks later,
with a £19k estimate, was a no-sale).
There were two truly rare MGs
in the line-up. £37,100 bought a
rakish 1939 WA saloon, while one
of the few remaining MG 1300s
fetched £8586. Sadly I have no space
here to go into detail but both were
special in their own way.MGB Roadster sold for £12,937 at H&H.
MGA with Alfa Romeo power didn't have any takers during the Barons auction.It is fitted with1750cc Alfa twin-cam. The smart interior of an MG 1300.Interesting 1939 WA saloon
went for £37,100 at ACA.
1972 1275cc Midget sold for £7312 at H&H.Seven common-or-garden MGs found
new owners, with a ’73 Midget near the
front of the queue. Although 46 year-
old cars don’t need MoTs, the lack of a
current certificate and history file held it